The Sabbath

7 You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.10 Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the LORD’s unfailing love
surrounds the one who trusts in him.

11 Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous;
sing, all you who are upright in heart!

David is here improving the experience he had had of the comfort of pardoning mercy.

He speaks to God, and professes his confidence in him and expectation from him, v. 7. Having tasted the sweetness of divine grace to a penitent sinner, he cannot doubt of the continuance of that grace to a praying saint, and that in that grace he should find both safety and joy.

When we have received the comfort of our remission, we must fly to the grace of God to be preserved from returning to folly again, and having our hearts again hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. God keeps his people from trouble by keeping them from sin.

Those are best able to teach others the grace of God who have themselves had the experience of it; and those who are themselves taught of God ought to tell others what he has done for their souls and so teach them.

Let us not be like them; let us not be hurried by appetite and passion, at any time, to go contrary to the dictates of right reason and to our true interest.

Sin will have sorrow if not repented of, everlasting sorrow.

They are assured that if they will but trust in the Lord, and keep closely to him, mercy shall compass them about on every side (v. 10), so that they shall not depart from God, for that mercy shall keep them in, nor shall any real evil break in upon them, for that mercy shall keep it out.